Three days later on began the sack and the pillage of Bagdad. The Mongols rushed in from all sides simultaneously; they spared only houses of Christians and those of a few foreigners. On the second day of the city’s undoing Hulagu went to the palace in Bagdad and gave a great feast to his commanders; toward the end of that feast the Kalif was brought in to stand before Hulagu. “Thou art master of this house,” said the conqueror, “I am the guest in it. Let us see what thou hast which might be a good and proper gift to me.” The Kalif had two thousand rich robes and ten thousand gold dinars brought and many rich jewels also. Hulagu would not look at them. “Our men,” remarked he, “will find all wealth of that kind, which is for my servitors. Show hidden treasures.” The Kalif described then a place in the courtyard. Men went to work straightway and dug till they came to two cisterns filled with gold pieces, each piece a hundred miskals. In various parts of the palace the Mongols found gold and silver vessels; of these they made no more account than if they had been tin or copper. Hulagu desired then that all persons in the harem be counted. Seven hundred women and slave girls were found there, and one thousand eunuchs. The Kalif begged to have those women given him who had never been under sunlight or moonlight directly. The conqueror gave him one hundred. Mostassim chose relatives and they were led forth from the palace. All the Kalif’s best treasures were taken to Hulagu’s camp ground. Around the immense tent of Jinghis Khan’s grandson were piled up great masses of wealth, being a portion of that which the Abbasids had taken from men during half a millennium. The sack of the city continued seven days and nights in succession; most of the mosques were burned during that time. A deputation came then to beg pity of the conqueror. Seeing that the place if he spared it might yield him some profit he relented after eight hundred thousand human beings had been slaughtered. Those who had hidden from death came forth now into daylight with safety; few were they in number and pitiful to look at. Many Christians had assembled in a church strongly guarded and were saved from death and every evil by the Mongols. The Nestorian Patriarch had power to effect this. A few wealthy Moslems had entrusted the best of their treasures to the Patriarch to keep for them; they had hoped to survive, but all perished.